Staff photo by Ari Selvey Madelia’s Ashley Sorenson serves the ball during a Valley Conference volleyball match against Nicollet Tuesday at Madelia High School. Madelia had 25 ace serves in the match.

MADELIA — Madelia had 25 ace serves as a team on Tuesday as the Blackhawks swept Nicollet 25-10, 25-11, 25-18 in a Valley Conference volleyball match at Madelia High School.

“[We’ve been] practicing and watching film,” Madelia head coach Melodie Devlaeminck said. “Being able to pick out the weaker areas and get to those spots. We’ve been really working on spot serving, and that’s really helped us out these last few games.”

Madelia has found success all season in getting points off of the serve. Ashley Sorenson and Ashlynn Sweet have been particularly effective, with Sorenson adding eight aces Tuesday for a season total of 38 and Sweet getting seven aces for a total of 32 on the season.

“For this game, we were working on getting back in our groove,” coach Devlaeminck said. “We’ve been in a bit of a slump these past couple of games, so we’re looking to be more threatening on our left. Our left side has been really efficient lately, so getting our lefts up and getting some scores — Ashlynn, our middle, has really been carrying the team lately, so we’re seeing if anyone else is going to start scoring, and today they did, so that was nice.”

Sweet also had nine kills, while Sorenson had 16 set assists and 5 digs. Lauren Grev had three kills for Madelia, while Corban Tatro had two kills, 14 digs and three aces.

Madelia pulled away early on the first set, with five aces by Sorenson giving the Blackhawks a 9-2 lead. Nicollet had a trio of kills by Savannah Klockziem, Leah Bode and Kamryn Truebenbach to pull to 13-6, but Madelia went on a 8-3 run to go ahead 21-9. Madelia finished out the set with an ace serve by Sorenson to win 25-10.

Set 2 was even early, with both teams scoring 3 points to open the game, but Madelia went on a 7-1 run capped off by a kill by Sweet to pull ahead 10-4. Nicollet regrouped and cut the lead to 12-8 on a kill by Carson Forbrook, and Madelia responded with a pair of kills by Sweet as part of a 10-1 run to go up 22-9. A kill by Klockzeim wasn’t enough to prevent a 25-11 win by Madelia.

Set 3 was a close game, with Nicollet taking an early lead as Bode turned the tables on Madelia with four ace serves as part of a 6-1 run to take a 9-5 lead. Nicollet hung on to the lead until a tip kill by Sweet gave the Blackhawks a 16-15 lead, which they tuned into a 7-0 run to go ahead 22-15 on an ace by Sweet. A kill by Nicollet’s Mackenzie Regner cut the lead to 22-17, but Madelia finished out the set to win 25-18.

Bode and Klockziem each finished with four kills to lead Nicollet.

Madelia (10-14, 1-5) hosts Loyola on Thursday. Nicollet (1-13, 1-6) hosts St. Clair on Thursday.